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Marvel Asked Sony for Spider-Man in 'Captain America: Civil War'

There's a good chance you've heard about the fact that Sony Pictures was hit by hackers, and the fallout from that invasion has resulted in tons of documents being leaked online. Business e-mails, contact information for directors and actors, cost analyses, focus group testing, anything and everything that has gone into development of projects at the studio, it's all slowly being leaked online. And some of the leaks have resulted in interesting information giving an unfortunate glimpse into the inner-workings of a major motion picture studio. The latest comes in the form of a potential collaboration with Marvel Studios.

The Wall Street Journal has learned that some of the e-mails that have been leaked from this hack show exchanges between Sony's head honcho Amy Pascal and the folks and Marvel and Disney (including the House of Mouse's chief executives Kaz Hirai and Bob Iger) about potential collaborations involving Spider-Man. The Marvel Comics character is owned by Sony Pictures right now, which has prevented the wallcrawler from popping up in the Marvel cinematic universe in which The Avengers exist. But since Sony Pictures has been struggling with their Amazing Spider-Man franchise, it appears they were exploring the possibility of working with Sony in a variety of ways.

First up, in an e-mail as recent as October 30th, Sony Pictures president Doug Belgrad was speaking to Pascal about the possibility of getting Marvel to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man movies where Sony would still be in charge of “creative control, marketing and distribution.” Another Spider-Man trilogy? Whatever. The most interesting tidbit comes from a conversation between Pascal and a "business partner" that Marvel had approached the studio about trying to get Spider-Man to be part of Captain America: Civil War. But don't get too excited, because the opportunity has come and gone.

In the Civil War storyline in the comics, Spider-Man plays a huge part in the battle, and the revelation of his secret identity actually becomes a huge turning point in favor of superhero registration. Again, since there are no secret identities in the Marvel cinematic universe in its current form, the presence of Spider-Man would really have shaken things up, and fans would have absolutely lost their minds if Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Andrew Garfield were all going head-to-head in this movie. But alas, that plan never solidified, and instead Sony Pictures has decided to move on with their own Spider-Man plans in the future. What might those plans be?

Well, Sony has already delayed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 until sometime in 2018, but they were also planning on releasing Sinister Six on November 11th, 2016. But one item we didn't know about was an animated comedic approach to Spider-Man from Phil Lord & Chris Miller, the writing and directing duo behind The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street. However, all those plans are probably up in the air since as recent as late last month, executives were planning a "Spidey summit" in January to figure out what they were going to do with the Spider-Man franchise.

At this point, the only viable idea for Sony would be to figure out some kind of mutually beneficial deal where Marvel can use Spider-Man, thus giving their webslinger franchise a boost. It's clear from all this shuffling and jostling around that Sony has no idea what to do with this iconic character anymore. It's time to send him back to Marvel where he belongs. But if you're going to be stubborn, get your shit together and figure out how to give him the big screen treatment he deserves. You have one of the most popular comic book characters in your roster, so why not treat him with respect? With great power comes…well, you know.

Reader Feedback - 15 Comments

You got my hopes up with that headline. You bastard. Talking about clickbaiting.

davidshaw on Dec 9, 2014

2

I am right there with you, got overly excited only to come in and read this, such a disappointment, but I put that blame on Sony for passing up on that offer.

Justin R on Dec 9, 2014

3

Really? The title says asked, not got. I assumed it was from the leak and old news for the studios (not us) and therefore something that has come and gone. Besides, with Civil War slated for release in about 1 and a half years, Spidey would probably have to be introduced in a captain america movie. That is just too much squishing with Iron Man also in the mix.

adam lamonica on Dec 10, 2014

4

Come on! If this was REALLY happening, it would be front page news, and not a sleepy little post on FS.

TheOct8pus on Dec 10, 2014

5

Well...that sucks.

DAVIDPD on Dec 10, 2014

6

They're so hopeless.

OfficialJab on Dec 10, 2014

7

It's sad that Sony has to host a "Spidey Summit" to generate ideas. Marvel would already know what to do with Spidey, and how to incorporate him into their universe. Oh well. Screw it.
I'd rather see Wolverine in the Marvel universe anyway....

TheOct8pus on Dec 10, 2014

8

A lot of reaction to this out there today - trending huge. Maybe they'll reconsider.

OfficialJab on Dec 10, 2014

9

They could easily make this a win-win for both Marvel and Sony. Someone needs to broker a deal, and these execs have to stop being dicks.
In short, Marvel is doing just fine without Spidey, but will probably increase profits by 200% if he showed up in Avengers 3 or something, and Sony is losing the fan's interest by recycling the same old sterile Spidey shit and they could use some new blood in there. A partnership would work out for both entities.

TheOct8pus on Dec 10, 2014

10

Sony is a technology company they never should have gotten into films - there movies (ALL Sony Picture Movies) do nothing for cinema - they just make movies. Take Studios like Universal, WB, Disney, even Fox -they innovate (well not Fox) - Sony just copies what everyone else is doing.

At this point, the only way we can hope to see Spider-Man return to Marvel Studios would be for Sony as a whole to go under in some way. They keep posting annual losses, and I think are looking at a $2 Billion+ loss for this most recent fiscal year.
So I mean...if all of the fanboys really wanted to contribute...then pretty much, you just have to stop buying Sony products and stop going to see Sony films.
Voting with your dollars is the only way to make a change.

Chris Groves on Dec 10, 2014

13

If sony had a brain they would allow it.

Brian Sleider on Dec 10, 2014

14

As much as I'd love to see Marvel get some of their beloved characters back (Spider-Man, X-Men)... There is the downside that we wouldn't get as many X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, and other stand alone character movies as frequently as we do now. We'd have to wait 10 years for them to cycle through all the characters.

Blake on Dec 10, 2014

15

With that said though... if they brought him into the Civil War storyline in the cinematic universe it would be awesome. It would be sort of random in their MCU but it would be cool.